^Wow, that's quite different from Dave Mack's model for the character, Katherine Heigl.

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I feared something like that. To be honest, I'm a horrible fit for a casting thread, but I figured maybe I'd get lucky. Beyond gender, age and maybe pose/stature physical descriptions mostly don't register with me while reading, and then I sort of automatically make up my own mental image by matching up on attitude and preconceived patterns. Even knowing the above, my mental Sandesjo will continue to look like Raymund.

Okay...I actually don't deserve credit for this next one--it's by my buddy Admiral_Ranor.

Anyway...how do you all feel about Denzel Washington (with a moustache, of course) as Ben Zoma, Picard's XO on the Stargazer?

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You know, I've never read a Stargazer novel, and the only stories featuring Gilaad Ben Zoma I've ever read were "What Dreams May Come" (from Tales of the Dominion War) and Part I of The Buried Age. I don't recall seeing a description of him in either one, but I honestly just assumed that he was an Israeli and probably looked Middle Eastern.

Of course, it occurs to me that between cultures mixing, increased immigration, and the presence of groups like Beta Israel, it's entirely plausible to have an African American playing an Israeli.

^Wow, that's quite different from Dave Mack's model for the character, Katherine Heigl.

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I feared something like that. To be honest, I'm a horrible fit for a casting thread, but I figured maybe I'd get lucky. Beyond gender, age and maybe pose/stature physical descriptions mostly don't register with me while reading, and then I sort of automatically make up my own mental image by matching up on attitude and preconceived patterns. Even knowing the above, my mental Sandesjo will continue to look like Raymund.

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Having a different interpretation of the character than her author isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Okay...I actually don't deserve credit for this next one--it's by my buddy Admiral_Ranor.

Anyway...how do you all feel about Denzel Washington (with a moustache, of course) as Ben Zoma, Picard's XO on the Stargazer?

Click to expand...

You know, I've never read a Stargazer novel, and the only stories featuring Gilaad Ben Zoma I've ever read were "What Dreams May Come" (from Tales of the Dominion War) and Part I of The Buried Age. I don't recall seeing a description of him in either one, but I honestly just assumed that he was an Israeli and probably looked Middle Eastern.

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Reunion--the book that first introduced Picard's old crew--I think was where he got the idea from.

"Gilaad Ben Zoma" is an Israeli name, although "Gilaad" can be Arabic as well. I think the reason some people think he's black is because when he appeared in a flashback in DC's TNG comic, the colorist gave him very dark skin for some reason. But I chalk that up to a coloring error.

"Gilaad Ben Zoma" is an Israeli name, although "Gilaad" can be Arabic as well. I think the reason some people think he's black is because when he appeared in a flashback in DC's TNG comic, the colorist gave him very dark skin for some reason. But I chalk that up to a coloring error.

"Gilaad Ben Zoma" is an Israeli name, although "Gilaad" can be Arabic as well. I think the reason some people think he's black is because when he appeared in a flashback in DC's TNG comic, the colorist gave him very dark skin for some reason. But I chalk that up to a coloring error.

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Not unlike how the cover of that Mission Gamma book confused a lot of people about the ethnicity of Prynn Tenmei.

Despite the colorist's odd choice, it's clear to me that the way artist Deryl Skelton drew ben Zoma's features in that issue is not consistent with a "black" ethnicity. His hair is straight (or slightly wavy) rather than tightly curled, which is kind of a dead giveaway. And his features look more Middle Eastern or Mediterranean to me. Maybe the idea was for him to be of Arab ethnicity, to have a skin tone similar to Julian Bashir's. But back then, comic-book color palettes were more limited and some attempts to represent ethnicities other than "white" or "black" could be awkward. (There are some DC TOS comics from just a few years earlier where Sulu's skin is a rather garish shade of orange.)

Despite the colorist's odd choice, it's clear to me that the way artist Deryl Skelton drew ben Zoma's features in that issue is not consistent with a "black" ethnicity. His hair is straight (or slightly wavy) rather than tightly curled, which is kind of a dead giveaway.

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Well, you can't marginalize or generalize all black men.

Some of us black men do wear our hair "wavy" as a style. The aforementioned, Billy Dee Williams still does to this day, as do other black male actors. Not too mention the mixed-race black individuals (be they half-Asian, half-Caucasian, half-Latino, etc.) who will gain certain features from both parents.

What? I'm not trying to do anything of the sort -- it's a ridiculous and insulting suggestion. I'm just saying that his features -- and I did include his facial structure in the discussion, not just his hair -- did not look "black" to me, but rather Middle Eastern or Mediterranean. I think that too many Americans are brought up to see ethnicity purely in "black-and-white" terms and fail to realize that there are a lot of ethnic groups on this planet that have brown skin. I'm arguing against marginalization -- the marginalization of ethnic groups other than the ones that Americans perceive as "white" and "black."